John Miner's
Suzuki LJ80 Project
Brisbane Queensland
Australia
Ph: 0418 772720		 John Miner

 

Photo Gallery

LJ80 finished
              The "Rocket"

 

1. The original LJ80
    before restoration

2. Cutting out rust

3. Painting

4. The finished project



Contact Information

Email:    john@kombu.com
Mail:     P.O. Box 140
              Springwood Qld
              Australia 4127
Mobile: 0418 772720

John's real job
www.johnminerphotographer.com.au






LJ80

About the Project

The original project started in March 2004 when I bought a soft top LJ80 for $600 which was a little too expensive but it was the first soft top I had seen that wasn't rusted out.

This car wasn't running and it had quite a lot of  rust, but it was repairable (I used a full 6' x 4' ((1800ml x 1200ml)) sheet of steel plate in the build), and it had all new tyres.

Over the next few week I bought 2 other LJ80's for parts ($300 each), one was a hard top LJ80V, this had had a lot of new parts fitted but had a blown motor. The other car was completely rusted out and ultimately had very few parts of use.

The owner of the hardtop had bought a 1000cc Suzuki Sierra motor to replace the blown motor and he included this in the deal. It was also fitted with expensive shocks and steering damper etc ($3000 worth).

I made a few improvements to the new motor including electronic ignition & exhaust headers, I will port and polish the head in the near future..

The bonnet and back swing door (with the spare tyre on it) had to be almost completely rebuilt because of major rust and dent damage.

Modifications to the car include a body lift of 2 inches, gas shocks all around, I fitted  disc brakes on the front and a A frame (for towing the LJ80 behind a car on a long trip).

I may put the fittings back for the original soft top although I have had a small soft top made to keep the rain off the head.  I also up-graded the seats.

I made 2 lockable boxes for storage. One is between the seats which also makes a good armrest (I padded the top) and the other one sits in the back and carries recover gear, camping equipment and spare oil and water etc.

I recently fitted a UHF 2 way radio and a CD player/Radio with 4 speakers.

I had the centres of the wheels cut and and reversed the rims to widen the wheel base,
I also fitted spaces to make them slightly wider, It will now climb trees (well almost!).

I had budgeted $1500 for the build and blew the budget in the first month, I lost track of how much I spent (I stopped counting after $4000).

I have a lot of parts left over and most are for sale. I also have a workshop manual for the LJ80 and one for a LJ50.



http://kombu.com